DESCRIPTION (Investigator's Abstract): The initiative to map and sequence the human genome is entering a critical period. For the next five years, the genomics community will focus on developing technology and organizational structures for accomplishing its goal of obtaining the complete sequence by the year 2005. The choices made in the early 1990s will define the basic outline of the technological system for mapping and sequencing the human genome and lay a new groundwork for twenty first century biology and biotechnology. The social impacts of the design and implementation of the genome project are likely to be enormous. Decisions made today about the technological and organizational structure of the genome project will affect how the information the project produces is eventually used and the social impact of that information. Similarly, decisions about how to manage the tensions inherent in scientific collaboration on this scale are likely to have an effect on research ethics well beyond the genomics community. The next five years are thus a strategic research opportunity of exceptional importance for understanding the evolution of the genome project and its impact. The proposed study will explore how the agenda for research, for organizational design, and for policy of the genomics community takes shape during this critical period. The system/network approach to technology, and the concept of agenda-setting, provide a theoretical framework. The research will use a prospective, longitudinal study of a cohort of key informants from the community, in-depth interviewing, and participant observation in carefully selected laboratories.